"Gentlemen Broncos," the "Napoleon Dynamite" creators' 2009 masterpiece

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I avoided this back in the day because of the terrible reviews. I guess I’ll see if I can find a copy.

I liked Napoleon Dynamite well enough to buy the DVD. Turned my parents onto it, and they bought a copy. Made my sister’s family watch it – they’re Disney and blockbuster-action-movie fans – and they bought a copy.

I saw it when it came out. It´s not bad and pretty weird, but not as good as Napoleon Dynamite by a long shot. While I´ve watched Napoleon Dynamite a number of times, once was enough for Gentlemen Broncos for me.

It’s a train wreck of a movie, that said, you won’t be able to stop watching…

PS. Between, say, Fast& Furious 7 and this, I’d go with Gentlemen Broncos.

Housemates and I were super enthused by the trailer, which we watched multiple times on different occasions. When it finally came out we were let down by the movie propper, and would have been better off just watching the trailer again.

I’ll give you that it’s an… awkward watch but still more laugh out loud moments than most comedies. I guess having read plenty of crap scifi novels in my time helps. The opening titles perfectly capture that whole shite cover art vibe.

No love for Nacho Libre? That was another movie from the Napoleon crew.

Also not as good as AD, but it had its moments and I love the soundtrack.

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I watched this in the theater here in Portland. I was the only person watching it. I don’t know why it did so bad, because my wife and I love it and watch it about once a year. It is fun and funny.

“He took my nads!”

Thanks for the heads up. I’ll be sure to avoid at all costs.

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nacho libre is lovely. Some fantastic sound work too. The chip fight is pitch perfect!

I tried to watch this movie a couple years ago, I made it about half way through before turning it off. I liked Napoleon Dynamite, it was something fresh and new. This was just over the top all the characters annoyed me to no end. It was like someone force fed me all the ridiculousness of the Napoleon movie but times that by 500X and force it down my throat in a 90 minute period…

I’d like to see Nacho Libre again. It has a lot of peculiar and sweet stuff, and the whole small-town Luchadore phenomena is very interesting.

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Does anyone know if Jemaine Clement’s character is supposed to be Lin Carter?

Literally the second paragraph:

Their follow-up feature to Dynamite, the Jack Black Mexican-wrestling vehicle Nacho Libre, does have a following (and, to my mind, shows a side of Mexico rarely seen on film with such clarity),

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Watching Napoleon Dynamite the one time has ensured I will never watch anything from the creative team again. I don’t get any of the hype that movie has.

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I really like the films the Hess bros. put out, even with the gross and silly humor. NL is a really beautifully shot film. I’ve been lucky to see all of them in theaters. I think the reviews killed it dead in its tracks. Remember this was back when RT had traction with people.

Not Surprisingly, internet hate object, Armond White, has championed GB since it was released.

from 2011, “The Sitter isn’t a great–radical–advance like Jared Hess’ Gentlemen Broncos (a classic-in-waiting)”

It made his better than list for 2009:

Gentlemen Broncos >Inglourious Basterds

Jared Hess goes to the roots of the sci-fi genre for its pathos. Removed from exhibition, its day will come. It is the 2001 of 2009. But Q.T. traipses through the war movie genre without touching on anything remotely personal or amusing."

His rotten blurb (one of 15 critics who "fresh"ed the film):

This is personal filmmaking, surveying the private emotions that generally embarrass people or make us feel out of step – a daring proposition in an era that frantically insists upon marketable conformity.

buried deep and damaged in the dead NYPress site, his original critique:

Here’s another take on the film:

Hess’s visual style has been compared to that of Wes Anderson, with an emphasis on centered framings and odd tangential details, but I realized in this movie that the two filmmakers are interested in radically different themes - Hess focusses on people in marginalized, out-of-the-way places, whereas Anderson focusses on people in the most chic and stylish places (who nonetheless are broken and lonely as well). And don’t get me wrong, I love Anderson’s films, but I absolutely find a huge amount of value in Jared Hess’s resolutely anti-glamorous films as well."

[quote=“stefanjones, post:2, topic:51275”]
I avoided this back in the day because of the terrible reviews.
[/quote]From Armond White in 2009:

Gentlemen Broncos is so far outside generic convention that scene-by-scene it risks being misunderstood. (Expect Hess to get stomped by critics who only want formula.)"

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